Paul Galatis wows the ConFab crowd…

CN&CO’s latest ConFab session was held on 30 October 2017 at our Joburg office. Our guest speaker was the inimitable entrepreneur/designer/geek, Paul Galatis, who is probably best known for his role in establishing Yuppiechef. He is also a personal friend of CN&CO’s Josie Dougall. They’ve been friends since they were both knee-high to their respective grasshoppers, in fact, and Paul shared some fantastic childhood memories of growing up in and around Pietermaritzburg…

But the crux of his talk was around his personal and professional journey, from the time he spent as an exchange student designing the 1400th anniversary logo for the world’s oldest school*, to his work on Yuppiechef, his ideas on design, his opinions on a lot of things (all of which we loved, even if we didn’t agree with them 100%!!) and his mission to put people at the centre of everything he does.

Here are a few insights from the CN&CO team on the evening:

From Lorraine:

Another interesting Confab! I had actually never heard of Yuppiechef, I actually thought it was a food delivery service  So having Paul come in and talk more about it was eye opening for me. This I believe is the whole point of ConFab, to introduce people to things and worlds they may not experience in their daily lives.

I was particularly fascinated by his latest project “Names & Faces“. I’m intrigued by its simplicity and its clear motive of literally helping people put a name to a face or vice versa. In a world of social media that is oftentimes overly social and invasive, I think Names & Faces is a solid and grounded idea. It is also quite useful, as it shows you only the necessary information about a person. No one REALLY needs to know that you’re a HUGE Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift fan. (It’s okay if you are, we just won’t be attending any concerts together.)

From Rikus:

From Emi:

My best Confab to date! There’s something tremendously rare about someone who lives and breathes their business and that’s exactly what Paul Galatis does. Who would have thought that Yuppiechef only became profitable nine months ago?!

Adding a personal touch on things goes a long way. It’s something we at CN&CO strive to do and it’s certainly something the Yuppiechef team has waxed with their handwritten notes.

And so the saying goes “love what you do and you won’t work a day in your life.”

From Carel:

I loved hearing about how difficult it is to be an entrepreneur – and how rewarding! As one of the CN&CO entrepreneurs I could identify totally.

Having conversations with old and new friends about the many fascinating insights Paul shared, was – as always – a highlight.

I especially loved seeing my old “boss” mentor and friend from Hollard days, Sheila Surgey, as well as Frances Fish, the dynamo entrepreneur who, with her husband Victor and now son Steve, runs M+F Furnishers (not only a client but partly responsible for our lovely CN&CO office).

Relationships and people… this is what Paul spoke about, and what ConFab means to me.

From Rob:

One of the main takeouts from Paul’s talk was the reminder that starting a business (in this case, Yuppiechef) and developing takes many years of hard work. Most people these days think that you can be an entrepreneur and make a profit in a couple of months. The reality is it takes far longer than that to develop the company’s brand, product and client base. Yuppiechef was started in 2006 and only became profitable at the start of 2017 – that is a decade of grit, determination and many hours behind the scenes that most people could never envisage when they set out to become a successful business.

From Gianluca:

As a big fan of Yuppiechef myself, and particularly their attention to detail in going over and above to add value, I was really impressed by Paul’s talk and personality. His journey is interesting and had a lot to share.

I think in this day and age, a “can do” attitude is priceless and links strongly with our business to always ask questions and not settle for “good”, but build relationships and “hand write those cards”(& experiences). It was great to have Frances and Steve Fish from M+F at the event. They were very grateful to be invited and loved every minute.

*The King’s School in Canterbury, England, was founded in 597

About ConFab

A ConFab, in the CN&CO sense, is a gathering of diverse people, hand-picked from our networks, where ideas are exchanged (as well as the odd phone number), opinions raised, ideas sparked, belief systems challenged and, we hope, horizons broadened.

Each ConFab session has a speaker who is chosen from our networks, and who we think has something interesting to say. We do not give them a brief, and we do not know what they are going to talk about. It’s all part of the fab component. That, and the wine, of course, which is always a good social lubricant, even for the abstainers by all accounts.